Freeman concealed the camera in the bathroom of a student flat in Longsight in a bid to film one of his victims using the toilet.

He later told one of his victims it was ‘just a fetish’ after evidence of the filming was found on his phone and she decided to forget the matter.

But police were called when around six months later - in January this year - when one of the woman’s flatmates again found the hidden device.

She watched in horror as she played back the video to see footage of herself using the toilet and rewound to the start of the film to see Freeman’s face as he lined up the camera on a ledge facing the area.

The court heard Freeman, a geography student from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, has been left ‘deeply embarrassed’ by his actions - which now appear to have destroyed his ambitions of becoming a teacher.

Defending, Alison Mofham said: “He made a full and frank admission to police officers and was very clear about how ashamed he was at his behaviour.

“He wanted to be a teacher but that is now not a realistic possibility.

“He’s had to tell his parents about these offences with all the embarrassment that involves. He’s put himself in an incredibly embarrassing and difficult position.”

The court heard his victims - who cannot be identified - had been left ‘shocked and embarrassed’ after finding the footage.

Holly Holden, for the prosecution, said Freeman had wanted to film one of his victims but ‘had not intended to see other people’.

She said: “It was his intention to catch her on the toilet for his own sexual gratification.

“When confronted he said it was ‘just a fetish he had and a thing he did’. He said he ‘knew it was weird’.”

Freeman was handed a 26-week jail term, suspended for two years.

He was also given a two-year community order, a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and told to pay both victims £100 compensation.